Reflections upon completing the 214 Wainwrights using public transport.
Walking the Wainwrights (and walking more generally) using public transport isn’t just something done by do-gooders trying to save the planet. Yes, it has many benefits for the environment and communities that host us, but the starting point for bagging the Wainwrights on public transport was simply that I didn’t have a car at the time. I quickly discovered that it opens up an entirely different way of experiencing the National Park, and I became addicted to the many upsides that it brought. It isn’t without some challenges from time to time, but with the helpful tips and solutions found on this website I believe walking in the Lakes using the bus network is easily more fun than driving.
WHY DO IT?
Few people realise that Alfred Wainwright, writer of the pictorial guides, did not have a car and used the public transport to get around the Lakes. This approach shaped how he experienced and understood the landscape so for any Wainwright purists wanting to walk in his footsteps, this should be the way to approach the fells.
Environmental benefits:
We often visualise vehicle emissions as a wider issue that affects our atmosphere, but in reality the environmental impact is visually noticeable within the park. Hedgerows and woodlands become less diverse, with the archetypal sight of lichen on trees and drystone walls becoming less frequent and more homogenous as abundance and variety is in decline. Lichens rely on clean air to survive, and in 2020 the National Park Authority engaged in a project in Borrowdale to save an increasingly rare species (Lungwort) at threat due to increasing air pollution in the valley.
It’s not just plant life, either. Animals retreat further away from busy areas of human activity and noise. The sight of deer on the Eastern Fells from High Street to Place Fell is a ‘bucket list’ sight for Wainwright baggers, yet as road traffic through Patterdale increases, these shy animals retreat into increasingly hidden spots. .
Community benefits:
We tourists must all remember that we are guests within the National Park, and ought to be ‘good tourists.’
Over recent years the National Park has struggled to cope with the influx of cars, particularly during the pandemic boom of domestic holidays. Infrastructure simply isn’t designed to cope with the volume of vehicles and during peak periods this leads to tailbacks in, and around, the National Park. Local people increasingly struggle to live their normal lives with people parking irresponsibly and blocking access to access private properties. This is no small issue: countless examples have been raised of farmers unable to attend to livestock and Mountain Rescue and emergency services unable to attend time-critical incidents due to traffic and parking. The solution cannot be to tarmac over yet more areas of national beauty: If more people would leave the cars parked at home, or in the main towns and get the buses around the park, this would have an overnight impact on congestion in Cumbria.
However, public transport isn’t only for tourists. One of the main complaints public transport faces in tourist areas is that it increasingly isolates the local communities in favour of shuttling tourists to the honeypot areas. The more tourists use the wide variety of routes available (and are vocal about it!) the more income and profile is raised: putting more responsibility and resources on providers to increase the range and coverage of transport that would benefit commuters and residents of smaller isolated villages. This, in turn, would help walkers to access the quieter and more remote fells.
IS IT JUST ALTRUISTIC? WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
No, and a lot, actually! Using public transport can be very liberating when you leave the car at home. For a start, someone else does the hard work while you get to take in the spectacular views, and when arriving at the starting place there’s no re-enacting Wacky Races to find parking spots on narrow country lanes or paying for expensive parking tickets.
Route options:
There is a common misconception that using the buses reduces route options. It is true that certain regions are harder to reach, but the large majority of the park and fells are well connected, and where buses do run I found the options to be comparatively vast: by never having to return to a car at the end of the day most of my walking has been linear, not circular. I have been able to cover several ranges or valleys in a day, making use of different bus routes running around the park and never having to loop back to my starting point.
More often than not, I find myself changing my walk plan half way through the day. Whether I’ve found a sudden burst of energy and want to press on, or (more frequently) found my legs turning to jelly and wanted to cut the walk short. Many times I’ve found myself looking down into the valleys from the top of a fell and been drawn towards a completely different path than I had intended when plotting on the map. It might be a set of plunge-pools, a woodland or an interesting stone staircase: A quick look at the bus map and timetable showed me that I could go and satisfy my curiosity and get a different bus at the end of the walk. From Fairfield, I could descend towards Thirlmere, Grasmere, Rydal, Ambleside, Brotherswater, Bridgend or Patterdale on an impulse. How could anyone say that’s more limited than having to return to the car?
Appreciation of the landscape:
I also believe it changes how you can appreciate and understand the landscape, as you are moving through the land in a different way. Most bus stops aren’t directly at the bottom of the fells: often you have an additional mile or two of walking through valleys, streams and woodlands, and get to see the fells from a different perspective. Even walking along tarmac lanes back to the bus was intriguing. I often stumbled across beautiful cottages, villages and bridges, and came across unique place names and began to understand how the different hamlets and community centres knitted together. Ticking off the fells to the West of Loweswater involved a couple of miles walk back to the main road via the hamlets around Loweswater and Lanthwaite wood. I followed several red squirrels along the lanes, crossed several beautiful stone bridges and found some caves in the woodlands. This is something that car uses would have all missed by parking at the bottom, walking up and down, and driving home again.
IS IT ALL POSITIVES?
No! It would be dishonest for me to say it was always easy, or always accessible for everyone. However, I found that the additional challenges made completing the 214 Wainwrights that much more satisfying, and overcoming the issues I faced became my proudest memories.
Cost
One of the main criticisms is the cost of bus travel. There are a whole range of ‘explorer’ style tickets that allow you to hop on and off for unlimited travel based on the region, group size, or length of time that you are wanting to use it for. It suited me to buy the most expensive: a weekly ticket for unlimited travel around the North West region that cost me £30.50 (2022), and I make the case that this is cheaper than a week of parking tickets and fuel around low-efficiency rural roads. However, I do understand that there are some groups for whom the balance of cost is weighted more in favour of a car, and this is something I think Stagecoach could look at addressing. I would also add that it is worth getting a physical paper/card ticket, and not relying on the app. I have had the unfortunate experience of being logged out in Borrowdale and not having internet connection to log back in again. Lesson learned!
Seasonality
The Lake District is a mountainous area and over the winter some of the higher passes (Kirkstone and Honister) aren’t possible for the buses to manage. Therefore some routes cease to run from October to April. The bus drivers around Cumbria are exceptionally skilled drivers, so the fact Stagecoach don’t run the routes over the winter might also be pause for thought to some drivers, too! When planning the 214, this is a consideration to bear in mind: which ranges or regions of the park to approach at different times of the year.
Remote regions
While most of the fells are accessible on the bus as day-trips, some regions are unavoidably remote and the fells surrounding Wasdale Head, Eskdale, Kentmere and Caldbeck can be logistically challenging. I’ll be writing further pieces on how to overcome these challenges with any handy tips that aren’t readily available in a quick Google search, but my preference was to take a tent and either wild camp or backpack using campsites for a few days. Some of my favourite experiences have been watching the sun set from Esk Hause, or walking up Gatesgarth Pass in the golden hour: well worth the extra effort! However, many people have different limitations and responsibilities in life, and day tripping with the car might ultimately be the best solution for these fells. Having said that, I would still encourage everyone to push the boundaries of what you think is achievable using the buses: you’ll surprise yourself and feel like you’ve accomplished something when you bag a fell having overcome something in the process!
